{"id":425,"date":"2014-04-24T13:40:04","date_gmt":"2014-04-24T20:40:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.slowbloom.com\/blog\/?p=425"},"modified":"2014-04-24T13:40:04","modified_gmt":"2014-04-24T20:40:04","slug":"the-heroines-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slowbloom.com\/blog\/2014\/04\/the-heroines-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"The Heroine’s Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"strong<\/a><\/p>\n

Last weekend I attended Norwescon<\/a>, a local convention for fans of science fiction and fantasy. It was the first time I’d been to something like this, and I had an incredible weekend. <\/p>\n

One of the best panels I attended was on “The Heroine’s Journey.” I’ve spent the last several years thinking about stories and story structure, specifically women’s stories, so I was curious to hear what the panelists thought about the heroine’s journey.([ref] I want to make clear that I’m talking about people who are socialized as female in Western culture. I also think there is a need to include queer and trans folks in this discussion. [\/ref] [ref] Panelists: Nisi Shawl<\/a> (M), Susan DeFreitas<\/a>, Diana Pharaoh Francis<\/a>, Karen Kincy<\/a>, Stina Leicht<\/a>, Cassandra Clarke<\/a>[\/ref] [ref] Why I Hate Strong Female Characters<\/a>[\/ref])<\/p>\n

They started with a discussion about the hero’s journey (aka “monomyth”), which has been well documented by Joseph Campbell and others<\/a>. From there, the discussion went into how the heroine’s journey and experience differed from the hero’s. Here are the primary points I took away:<\/p>\n